Ripples Across the Universe
by Red Tigress
Summary: On his way to Asgard, an unfortunate accident sends Tony across the galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Woo, first GOTG fic! Please leave some love if you like it. Not sure when the update will be, so stay tuned. Enjoy!_

"I'm not sure who else to call." Jane Foster's disembodied head was taking up his tablet screen, her hair somewhat disheveled. She gave a small apologetic smile. "What with SHIELD being non-existant, and Dr. Banner being out of the country, and me generally not trusting a whole lot of other people with off-worldly artifacts of _major_ destruction-"

"Thank you for the prelude, Dr. Foster," Tony said dryly but warmly. "But why don't you skip to the major need-to-knows."

Jane breathed out, closing her eyes briefly when Tony heard the distant echo of "_Are you talking to the Man of Iron?"_ come from somewhere over her end of the connection.

"We just got back from Asgard, and the Tesseract is acting…weird."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Is that a scientific term?"

Foster gave him a withering look. "Its power levels are fluctuating. Something is happening, and I'm not sure what it means. The Asgardians don't know either."

"Tony Stark, there is something you must know," Thor's voice cut in, as did his chin over Foster's shoulder. She frowned, then moved her own tablet so Tony could make eye contact with the Asgardian. "The Tesseract is related to the Aether, the entity with which Jane and I had contact with in Ang Land."

Tony's shudder was only suppressed by Thor's mispronunciation of England. The Tesseract had all screwed them over pretty well. Tony hadn't really spoken to anyone else besides Pepper about it, but he _still_ had nightmares about the portal. He'd seen the footage of the aftermath in Greenwich (and some of the British Government's security level footage of the actual events), and it terrified him. He wasn't surprised that and the Tesseract were related.

He rubbed his forehead in an attempt to abate the sudden headache he could feel forming. It was too early in the morning to be dealing with this cosmic crap. "How are they related?"

"The Aether and the Tesseract are both what are known as Infinity Stones. They grant the wielder much power, as we have all witnessed. But they are part of a larger whole. In total, there are six stones."

Tony nearly dropped his tablet. "You mean there are 4 more of those things spinning around the Universe that are unaccounted for?"

Thor and Jane shared a look. "Yes. And it seems they are waking up, essentially. The Infinity Stones, while not exactly sentient, do have somewhat of an individuality. Not unlike Mjolnir. They yearn to be together."

"What happens when they're together?" Tony growled.

"Pretty much the Universe gets destroyed," Jane cut in.

Tony scrubbed a hand over his face. "Okay. Okay. I can't…this is definitely a problem." Tony was already starting to yearn for the days of kidnapped presidents. Small steps first. "What do we need to do first?"

"We were hoping you'd come with us to Asgard and help me figure out a way to stabilize the Tesseract's energy. Maybe even hide it," Foster said.

Tony grimaced. She sounded like she had just asked him to hop on a plane and hop over to England, as opposed to interdimensional travel, which he had already experienced once and wasn't sure he had ever wanted to experience again.

On the other hand, alien planet where they had limitless technology and all spoke English? That might be fun.

"What about the Aether thing, is that acting up too?"

Thor and Jane shared another look. "It is…not on Asgard." Thor said after a moment.

Tony froze. He tried to sound patient, but his voice came out more on edge than he'd planned. "Then where is it?"

"He doesn't know," Foster said, exasperated. "They moved it without telling him. You'd think alien empires wouldn't be bogged down in bureaucracy, but they are. All we know is it's not on Asgard."

"Alright," Tony growled, resigned. This was getting worse every minute. "One problem at a time. Where should I meet you to go look at the Tesseract?"

"Come to England now, and then we can hitch a ride together," Jane said.

"You always just 'hitch rides' on interdimensional highways?" Tony asked.

She shrugged. "Sure." Tony waited for an explanation, but she seemed very satisfied with that answer.

They said goodbye, and after that Tony left a few messages. The first one was to Bruce, giving him a quick rundown and sharing where he would be. Tony was slightly disappointed Bruce hadn't answered his call, but then again, the man did seem to insist on being in hiding, especially with SHIELD dismantled. But he really could have used his help on this one. Plus, he just liked having him around.

The second call he made was to Pepper, who was in L.A. "Hi, Tony," she smiled as she answered the call on her tablet.

"Hey Hon, you probably shouldn't bother trying to make it out for dinner tomorrow, seeing as how I'll be out of town."

Her smile quickly turned into a look of exasperation. "Oh really."

"Really." He gave her a sheepish grin.

"And where exactly are you going?"

"To another planet," he tried not to sound smug.

"What? Oh my…oh my _god_, Tony!"

"Well, some see Asgardians as gods, but they're really just crazy nutjobs with magic and stupid hats and-"

"Tony, that's really exciting," Pepper interrupted. "But it's dangerous, right? Like, how…"

"Apparently Jane Foster does it all the time. Anyway, I have to go, we're leaving…pretty soon."

"How long will you be gone?"

Tony felt his heart clench at the worry in her voice. "A few days maybe? I'll keep in touch, I promise." He gave her Dr. Foster's intern's contact information, which she accepted begrudgingly.

"How is her intern supposed to communicate with you on another planet?" Pepper said, reading the information at the bottom of her screen.

"I don't know, I didn't ask specifics. Apparently this sort of thing is normal for them."

"Just…be safe, okay?" Pepper asked quietly. "Please."

Tony tried to give her a reassuring smile, but he was pretty sure he failed miserably. "Sure thing, you too."

Neither of them said 'I love you'. They didn't have to.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, Tony was standing in his full Iron Man gear (couldn't be too cautious) outside of Dr. Foster's small apartment building. Dr. Foster was there, with Thor in full armor beside her, which made Tony not feel so bad for dressing up. A few passersby had stopped to gape openly at them, but the side street was relatively quiet.<p>

Tony had found himself growing increasingly nervous up to this moment, to a point where he was breathing rather heavily inside his suit. He couldn't deny that a part of him was definitely _not_ over travel-by-portal, and he was more than a little scared of suddenly tumbling out into space. Jane's casualness during her explanation of explaining what would happen in scientific terms, had done nothing to ease his fears, and had only added some shame on top of it.

Thor on some level, seemed to notice his apprehension, and took him aside while Jane was distracted with leaving her intern last minute instructions (though they mostly seemed to be trading sarcastic barbs).

"Try to be calm, Stark, I know it is difficult. But I will hold on to you and Jane tightly, and not let go. Your experiences would have been hard for anyone, and you are courageous for taking on your fears again." The Asgardian gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, but it only echoed hollowly off his metal frame.

Tony cleared his throat. "Yeah, uh, thanks, Blondie, but I think I'd rather just get going," Tony said sourly.

Thor didn't seem to take it personally, and instead gave him a small smile. "As you wish. Jane, are you ready?"

"No more interns, Darcy, that's the final word!" Jane said turning away from her own intern, who crossed her arms angrily over her chest and sneered.

Tony had seen stranger relationships.

Thor smiled as Jane wrapped her arms around his waist, and he wrapped one arm around hers. He held his free hand out to Tony. "I will not let go," he promised.

Tony hesitated, then took Thor's wrist in his own. The Asgardian's fingers wrapped around Tony's wrist. Well, better get it over with, Tony supposed.

"Don't drop me. My suit's not calibrated for space travel quite yet," Tony tried to joke, but it sounded weak in his own ears.

"I assure you, I will not." Thor raised his face to the sky. "Heimdall. We are ready."

"Who's-" Tony started to ask but there was a huge _whooshing_ noise and Tony's world was suddenly enveloped in light and sound. He could feel some forced making his armor vibrate chaotically, readings on his HUD flashing wildly, and then he felt himself moving.

It was almost sickening, the way they sped through space. Tony was somewhat used to the effects, playing around with a lot of G-Force on a regular basis, but he gained a whole new respect for Dr. Foster whose face was lit up despite being buffeted wildly through the sky. Tony swallowed hard when a few seconds later stars were rushing past them, working hard to keep his thoughts on the here and now.

Outside the rainbow swirls of light encompassing them, he saw something black move against the sky, blotting out the stars. He tried to call to Thor, but it was far too loud. However, from the look that crossed Thor's face, he had seen the shadow too and it was most definitely not normal.

Thor's hands were full, so Tony raised a gauntleted hand taking aim. Jane had noticed something was wrong, and had curled in closer to Thor who was shouting something to Tony. Tony couldn't hear however. He fired a blast, which the shadow dodged. A split second later, the shadow materialized into a definitive, blue-black humanoid form with four gangly arms, and a mouth full of very large teeth on a head with no eyes.

Tony's heart froze in his chest as faster than Thor could prepare for it, the thing lashed out at Thor's face. Tony raised his free arm again, but the thing kicked at his chest at the same time Thor's head snapped back. Dazed, Thor's grip on both Tony and Jane slipped, but Jane had both arms wrapped around Thor still and managed to hold on.

There was a split second of confusion before Tony realized he no longer had a firm grip on the Asgardian. He howled in fear as the momentum from the alien's kick propelled him through the "Wall" of the portal. His body was knocked violently around in his armor for a moment, before everything was still, silent, and frozen.

Tony couldn't breathe.

* * *

><p>"What's that?"<p>

"What's what?" Rocket asked from somewhere underneath the pile of parts he was currently fusing together.

"Something on the radar. It's too small to be a ship. But it's got some interesting readings on it," Gamora said from her position in the pilot's seat. There was the sound of metal pieces being scattered around before Rocket hurried over and leapt onto the console to read it. His claws deftly pulled up readings and minimized others over the touch screen.

"Interesting, interesting. It's got some rare metals in it, I can salvage it for parts. I need some new guns."

"It's also got something organic in it," Gamora said pointing to another reading which Rocket had elected to ignore.

"Ewwww. Well, it's probably dead by now."

"What's dead?" Quill's voice came from behind them.

"Let's just go retrieve it and see," Gamora said.

"What? You wanna pull some random space alien onto the ship? What if it's diseased?" Haven't you ever seen a horror movie?" Quill demanded.

"No," Gamora and Rocket said in unison. Gamora reached for the tractor beam controls, targeting the object. She could see it out the cockpit window now, bright red and gold. "It's ugly, whatever it is," she said. The computer began to pull it in as she stood up from her seat.

Quill was glued to the window, with his hands and face pressed against it. "Woah, _AWESOME! _That's such a cool robot-thing!"

Rocket and Gamora ignored him, going down to the airlock to investigate their new piece of hardware. Quill ran to catch up. On the way, they passed through the galley where Drax was sharpening his knives (again). "Look alive, baldy, we got us a haul!" Rocket said as he shot past.

"I never look dead," Drax said, standing up to follow them.

They crowded around the window, trying to get a better look at the thing they had pulled into the ship. As soon as the pressure had equalized, they opened the door.

It was the shape of a person, with a clearly defined face. Rocket wasted no time in digging in his claws, trying to tear the helmet open.

"Woah woah, dude, what if it's alive?" Quill protested.

Rocket growled slightly, continuing to try and pry open the face mask. Drax preparing to use his knives to help. "Whatever, I don't-"

There was a huge inhale that suddenly came from inside the thing, and it arched off the ground. Everyone jumped back.

The gold faceplate shot up, revealing a human face inside, whose eyes were screwed shut as he started coughing savagely.

"It's human," Gamora said perplexed.

"Ugh, just what we didn't need," Rocket added.

"Hey man!"

Everyone ignored Quill's reaction, as Drax leaned down to get a closer look at the human. He was still coughing and curled in tightly on himself. "What do we do with it?"

At that moment, the man opened his eyes. They widened as they took in Drax kneeling in front of him before his arm swung up in what was definitely a display of aggression. Drax punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. Drax calmly turned towards his companions. "We will restrain him."

10 minutes later, they had the man out of the metal suit. It didn't take Rocket long to find the mechanisms that would separate the pieces of armor, and he was examining a gauntlet appreciatively in his claws as the rest of them sat on some crates in the storage area of the ship waiting for the man to wake up.

"It really actually is sort of impressive," Rocket admitted, trying to hide some admiration in his voice. "It folds up and I think these little thrusters allow it to fly. It must have some sort of A.I. but it wasn't working when I examined it."

"Where is it from?" Gamora asked.

"I don't know," Rocket admitted looking up. "Some of these mechanisms are downright archaic. And this carbon steel? There's definitely stronger stuff around, I don't know why he'd use this. But it's beautiful design work, I can tell you that."

Throughout Rocket's explanation, Quill remained uncharacteristically silent, studying the man in front of him. He was wearing a Led Zepplin t-shirt.

Quill definitely knew that band. Or had. Years ago.

"He's Terran," Quill spoke up.

They all turned to look at him and the man on the floor moaned slightly. "How do you know that?" Gamora asked.

"His shirt," Quill nodded towards him. "It's a Terran band."

"You know…Zepp?" the man said weakly from the floor.

"Sorta. I know the blimp…thing."

The man looked up from the floor. "You mean, the _zeppelin_?" he asked disdainfully.

"Alright, calm down, you're our prisoner! No back talk!" Quill bristled.

The man ignored him. "Where's my suit?"

"What's it for?" Rocket asked.

The man's eyes shot to the raccoon, and they widened. Quill could see Rocket preparing himself to spit out a nasty comment if the Terran said anything about him being a raccoon, but instead the man just said "Uh…full-bodied prosthesis."

"Oh," Rocket blinked. "In that case, I need it."

"You do not," Quill said.

"Who are you people?" The man on the floor suddenly asked.

Quill looked him dead in the eye and said "Starlord," at the same time Drax howled proudly "The Guardians of the Galaxy!" Gamora and Rocket each adopted similarly disgusted looks.

The man's eyes darted back and forth between all of them. "Um, sure," he drawled.

"I am Groot." Groot was almost two feet tall now, transplanted to a larger pot that rested on the floor next to the table. The man seemed to notice for the first time that the houseplant moved, and he started violently into the support beam he was tied to.

Groot just smiled at him.

"Look, where am I? Are you guys planning on harvesting my organs or something, because I should just tell you right now, I got a really bad heart…and…" the man was breathing more heavily now, his eyes darting wildly around the room. "…I don't…deal with…space…that well…" he shuddered, closing his eyes and throwing his head against the support beam as he tried to catch his breath. Quill made eye contact with Gamora, who seemed equally surprised as he was.

"Hey man, you need to calm down and breathe, okay? Here." Quill moved forward even as the others protested, and cut the bonds holding the man.

Quill was as surprised as anyone as the man kicked him in the chest before holding his arms up in what Quill thought must be some weird form of karate. He thought he was going to hit him again, but instead there was an electric whine as the pieces of metal flew out of Rocket's claws, startling a curse from the raccoon. They flew onto the man's arms, unfolding. He aimed one palm at Drax (probably as he seemed like the biggest threat), but his shot went wide and into the wall as Gamora tackled the man instead. In a heartbeat, she had him pinned to the ground, a sword at his throat.

"Now Terran," she said firmly. "You will explain why you are here, before I _really_ start to lose my patience."

* * *

><p>After brief apologies all around, the woman had let Tony up and they were now all seated at the table, warily eyeing one another. The raccoon had another piece of his armor in its claws, inspecting it. Tony had suppressed his initial feelings of distaste for the creature when he noticed the care and attention he was showing his armor pieces. After all, if Tony could treat Jarvis and the bots like humans, it wasn't a terrible stretch to extend the same courtesies to a raccoon that clearly knew what he was talking about.<p>

The human, by comparison, seemed like an idiot.

The huge green guy seemed patient and…somewhat friendly, he supposed. But maybe that was because Tony hadn't done any of his friends real damage.

The green woman seemed to have given him the benefit of the doubt, but he supposed it was because she had swords. Now that Tony had spent some time around more assassins then he cared to count, he recognized the movements of a trained killer when he saw them. Every movement of hers had deadly purpose, and she was acutely aware of her body. She could have killed him in about a second, but had let him live instead. So not total bad guys, but definitely morally ambiguous.

Hey, he knew people like that.

The tree he didn't even really want to think about.

"So, I'm Peter Quill, also known as Starlord, legendary outlaw." Tony saw the other crew members roll their eyes. "The woman who almost sliced your throat open is Gamora and she is very sorry. Right Gamora?"

"No."

"Okay then, moving on. The big green guy is Drax."

"The Destroyer," interrupted Drax jovially. He held up two knives for emphasis looking way too happy about it.

"It's funny, because I know a big green guy too, but he's not anywhere near as verbose as you," Tony grinned.

"There are his kind on Terra?" Gamora leaned forward.

"Uh, no. My green guy is human, just…somewhat altered. Anyway, not really important, but if you ever need anything smashed, he's the guy to call." They all blinked at him for a moment, before Quill moved on.

"The little guy is Rocket, and the other little guy is Groot. But he's good about telling you that."

"I am Groot!" the plant chimed in.

The raccoon looked extremely displeased at being called "little", but said nothing.

"Well, if you're from Earth, you may have heard of me. I'm Tony, Tony Stark," Tony said confidently. When he was met with a blank look, he continued. "You are American, right? Well, you probably don't even have to be American, I'm pretty famous in Monaco these days too."

"Yeah, I'm American, but I've never heard of you."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Really? That seems…unlikely. Where are you from?"

"Colorado. Why does it matter?"

"Because everyone's heard of me. Trust me, I was in bumfuck Tennessee last year and even they had heard of me." Well, at least one 11 year old had, but he wasn't going to tell this guy that now was he.

The man shrugged. "Sorry dude, been out here a while, so I've never heard of you."

"When did you leave Earth?" Tony asked.

"1986."

Tony's eyes widened. "Holy-1986? How _old_ were you? How did you even get off the planet? I think I'm pretty advanced, and I only got off the planet accidentally thanks to some crappy Asgardian space travel."

Quill's eyes shifted away. "I dunno, like 10? And some dudes picked me up and said they wouldn't eat me, so it's all cool. Why don't _you_ tell _us_ how you got off Earth, huh?"

Damn. And wasn't that what Tony had been avoiding thinking about so far. His second experience in space hadn't been better than his first. It had still been shocking, freezing, and terrifying all at the same moment. Luckily, before he could dwell too deeply on it, Rocket interrupted his thoughts.

"I didn't think Terrans had interplanetary space travel." He then leaned over to Drax. "So cute, these ones."

"A few of us do. Like, a handful. Like, me and a some friends. Not even me, just my friends. My one Asgardian friend," Tony amended. "We were traveling by…uh, I'm not even sure what you would call it. Weird wormhole thing."

Gamora tilted her head. "You are friends with an Asgardian?"

"Uh…yeah, yeah, I guess. Enemies with one too. They were brothers," Tony found himself explaining. "The bad one got a whole army of these dudes called Chitauri to attack my second-favorite city on Earth." His news seemed to shock the people sitting at the table who all looked worriedly at each other.

"When was this?" Drax asked. "I think I would have heard if the entire Chitauri mobilized to attack Terra which has zero defenses against intergalactic threats."

"Hey now, I defended it!" Tony protested.

"Well, you were in prison," Rocket pointed out to Drax.

"Not for that long."

"You were in prison? Have you all been in prison before?" Tony asked.

"Yes," they all said together before Gamora turned back to Tony. "When was this attack on Terra?"

"Um, about two years ago? I think. Why?" Tony looked at all of their faces, which all looked pretty grim. Especially Quill's.

"No one's ever attacked Terra before. At least not all out like that. People visit it from time to time, but Terra has no representation in any intergalactic counsel, and no force that defends it. If armies are attacking it now…well, I don't know what that means, actually."

"It means things are changing," Gamora finished. "Terra no longer has security through obscurity. Clearly you won, or else you wouldn't be here. Am I correct?"

Tony nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. And we had kind of figured that out too, which is why we have me and a few other guys working overtime to defend it. You found me because when I was traveling to Asgard we were attacked. It must have known why we were going there." Tony abruptly stopped talking, looking up.

"Why were you going there?" Gamora pressed.

Tony sighed, supposing it was no secret that Asgard housed tons of powerful artifacts. "When the Chitauri attacked our planet, they had help of something called The Tesseract. When it was over, the Asgardians took the Tesseract back to Asgard, but recently it's been acting weirdly, so I was going to have a look at it."

"What does it do?" Rocket asked.

"Creates portals through space," Tony suppressed a shutter. "It was how their leader was able to bring their forces through. But apparently there's more of them. It's called an Infinity Stone, I think."

The shift in the room was instantaneous. All four of them plus the tree straightened and looked at each other with wide eyes.

Gamora turned towards him again, fingers unconsciously curling around the hilt of her sword making Tony very nervous again. "An Infinity Stone was on Terra? Are you positive?"

"Two, actually. But I didn't have a personal connection with the second one."

"There were _two_ Infinity Stones on Terra?" Drax demanded. "How are you still alive?"

Tony blinked. "Yeah, uh…not sure on that one. Extreme willpower, maybe. But you guys know what those are?"

Gamora sank back into her chair, suddenly looking exhausted. "We have had personal dealings with one. It almost destroyed us and an entire planet. It is safely with the Nova Corps now."

"Yeah, I don't know what that is. Still new to this whole intergalactic stuff, remember? But when did you guys see that Infinity Stone?"

"A few weeks ago," Quill admitted. "Gamora, how many are there?"

"Six," she sighed. "Which makes three unaccounted for. But the high probability rate with which they've been finding their way to Terra is extremely…troublesome," she growled.

"No shit, lady," Tony snapped back. "We're stuck cleaning up a bunch of alien mess all the time because they think Earth is fair game."

"You have _NO _idea what you are dealing with!" Gamora hissed at him, and Tony suddenly wished he hadn't said that. "If Thanos finds out two of the Stones have shown up on Terra, where do you think will be the first place he'll look for the next one? The Stones will try to be together more than ever. They're waking up, and we're all doomed if Thanos gets his hands on _any_ of them."

Tony swallowed hard. "Uh, I'm not sure who this Thanos guy is but if you're right we are going to need some help."

"Absolutely not, me and Groot are done almost dying for other people, right pal?" Rocket said.

"I am Groot."

"Yeah he doesn't seem so bad no, but imagine an entire planet full of apes that can't defend themselves, do you really wanna put yourself in the middle of all that? Cause I sure don't." Rocket punctuated his tirade with a pointed sneer at Tony.

"Time out, time out," Quill said. "We don't even know if Thanos knows what Terra is."

"Of course he knows. Who do you think set up the Asgardian with the Chitauri army in the first place? The whole thing was orchestrated by one of his Lieutenants." Gamora folded her arms across her chest, looking nervous.

"Uh, wait. How do you know that?" Tony asked.

"Thanos is her Dad," whispered Quill loudly. "She's got a lot of Daddy issues." Gamora turned a glare on him.

"Well…who doesn't?" Tony laughed sarcastically.

"I am Groot."

"Except for you, I guess," he mumbled.

"I also do not have a Daddy Issue," Drax said.

"Okay, it was a rhetorical question," Tony groaned.

"If by that you mean you are attempting to use the art of rhetoric to persuade me to have these Daddy Issues like the rest of you, I am not persuaded easily." Drax cracked his knuckles to further illustrate his point. Tony was gratified to see the others were giving Drax weird looks as well.

"What were you attacked by?" Gamora asked, being the only one who was good at keeping the conversation on point.

Tony tried not to think about getting kicked out of an interdimensional portal and floating into the silent darkness of space. Instead, he focused on details. "It was, really hard to see at first, almost invisible. But then it was dark blueish-black, had too many arms, and tons and tons of teeth. Other than that, I can't give you much information." _Since I was sort of fighting for my life._

Gamora didn't look surprised. "Outriders. Some more of my father's assassins. Genetically engineered to be killers. You're lucky you escaped."

"I'm not sure if I'd call it escaping." He thought about Thor and Jane Foster. Were they alright? Hopefully. At the very least, Tony's near-death had probably freed up Thor's hand to bash the thing with Mjolnir. Wasn't that fortunate, he thought bitterly. "I need to get to Asgard."

Drax shook his head. "Impossible. The exact location is unknown, and the Asgardians aren't friendly to Outsiders. They'd shoot us down if we got ten lightyears within it."

"They wouldn't shoot _me_ down," Tony insisted.

"You just said you only knew two Asgardians and 50% of them tried to kill you," Quill pointed out.

Tony grimaced. That was definitely true. When put like that, it sounded pretty bad.

"Fine, Earth then. How far away is Earth from here?"

They all turned towards Quill expectantly. He seemed startled for a moment, then became defensive. "I don't know, I haven't been there since the 80s. Not like it's a regular truck stop for me!"

Tony raised an eyebrow. For a guy that kept insisting on how he hadn't been to Earth in three decades, Quill seemed to have a hard time letting things go. Like colloquialisms. And bands. "You're avoiding the place," he guessed.

"Am not!" Quill whined.

Gamora sighed. "Please, you are not a child, however much you insist on acting like one. And you are avoiding it."

That shut Quill up. "Yeah well…been havin' fun being like Han Solo and stuff," Quill mumbled, but the fight seemed to have left him.

"Well, while we're there, you can catch up some stuff. It's actually not my first time helping people make up for a few decades on Earth, you'd be _really_ surprised how often that happens." Tony chuckled to himself.

No one else laughed.

"We'll avoid the Star Wars prequels, eh?" Tony said instead.

"What prequels?" Quill seemed genuinely interested.

"What are the Star Wars? I have not heard of them," Drax chimed in. "I thought you said your planet had limited space travel. How could you have had a war in the stars, much less more than one?"

"Know what, forget it. How long to get to Earth from here?" Tony rubbed a hand over his face.

"About six days," Gamora said. "What do you plan on doing when you get there?"

"I don't…ah…" Tony grimaced. He hadn't actually thought about that much, other than kissing Pepper all over her beautiful face. He supposed he'd try to get in touch with Dr. Foster's intern, and let Thor know his knew information. Beyond that…well… "I guess try and get those rocks as far away from Earth and our allies as possible."

"Wrong." Gamora leveled her gaze at him, and Tony felt a thin sheet of sweat break out on his forehead. "You prepare. Thanos is coming. And he won't stop until Terra is out of his way." She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes and sighing warily. The others regarded her silently. "I am sorry. I do not know why Thanos and the Stones are targeting Terra. But…"

"But we need to be ready," Tony said succinctly.

She nodded.

Rocket stood up suddenly, and everyone turned to look at him. When no one said anything after a solid minute, he sighed, sitting back down. "Okay, I guess we're _not_ doing that anymore."

* * *

><p>After that, it became quieter as everyone left to do other things. Tony agreed to show Rocket how the suit functioned, if Rocket showed him some of his guns.<p>

"So lemme get this straight. You designed guns, but you don't do it anymore, but you still blow shit up with your armor, and you wanna see _my_ guns to more effectively blow said shit up, but you hate guns."

"I don't hate guns, I just don't design them anymore. Or missiles or stuff like that. Too easy to get blown up with your own stuff that other people steal, turns out."

Rocket watched as Tony shrugged, then put a screwdriver in his mouth as he examined the coolant system of one of Rocket's babies. Not for the first time, he wondered if the human had a story there. Probably. But Rocket wasn't going to pry. He wasn't going to know this guy longer than a week (hopefully), and Rocket wasn't about to share any of _his_ escapades with him.

"You gotta give me the chemical make-up of this coolant," Stark said excitedly. "It feels like air."

Rocket chuckled, leaning over so his claws could reach the tubes holding the white-blue liquid. "One of these doesn't even exist on Terra, I don't think. But you know, I can give ya some. For the road. Tell me more about this!" Rocket held up a glove which was fully extended. He started to deattach the repulsor but Tony yanked it out of his hand.

"Woah dude, you break it, you buy it. Which I doubt you can afford."

"What's that sposed to mean?" Rocket snarled.

"It means you live on a spaceship in the middle of nowhere, and the last movie your Captain watched was probably the Goonies, which doesn't bode well for you, believe me."

"Quill ain't my captain."

"Then what is he?" Tony asked.

Rocket shrugged again. Groot, who had stayed to watch him (mostly because he couldn't move yet), spoke up. "I am Groot."

"Yeah, I guess he's our friend," Rocket said, not looking up. "I dunno, we saved the Galaxy together, and I guess we don't hate each other enough to leave. You got people like that?"

"I wouldn't have put it quite so eloquently, but sure, yeah." Tony thought back to his teammates. With all of them, he wasn't sure how it was possible to both hate and love people at the same time.

Except for Bruce, he really did love that guy.

"People just sorta fall into your lives, and the next thing you know, you're drunk and listening to stories about how they took out a base full of fascists or something."

Rocket chuckled. "Yeah, see, you know how it is."

Tony never thought he'd feel such a kinship with a space raccoon.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thanks for the love!_

It traveled invisibly through the silent ship. It had been relatively easy to get on board. Its own small ship was easy to camouflage and after some quick adjustments, to get into the ship's airlock. The Outrider clutched onto the ceiling, knowing no one could see it. It passed through the galley first. A human was sleeping there on a thin mattress, a small, rodent-like awake creature beside it. The Outrider reached out telepathically. This creature stilled, but other than a small discomfort, didn't realize anything was amiss.

The Outrider shifted through its thoughts impatiently. The creature was more than it appeared, but the Outrider didn't care for the story of its existence. It came to the most recent memories from that day. The creature was Terran- that was valuable information. But he wasn't the Terran he was looking for.

The Outrider couldn't get much more information without making physical contact with the creature, so it came back into itself. As soon as it broke its telepathic hold, the creature shook its head, as though waking up from a daze. The Outrider moved on.

It didn't notice the plant that was in a pot next to the creature shift uneasily.

The Outrider came upon the crew quarters next. The Terran's door was easy to spot, as it was the largest on the ship. The Outrider found its way inside, approaching the human sleeping in a messy tangle of limbs and bed clothes. It reached out both physically and telepathically, touching one claw to the man's temple.

The Infinity Stone was a pervasive thought. It came to the Outrider almost immediately. The power, the pain. The struggle to not let it completely destroy him. His companions had helped with that. Fascinating. The last time anyone had shared power of the Infinity Stones had been millennia ago. Ronan the Accuser had lost because he failed to take into account a group of thugs would share power. A mistake the Outrider knew his Lord would not make.

It continued to move through the Terran's thoughts, turning to the most recent one about the other Terran. The Outrider suddenly froze in surprise. The second Terran, the one he had so carelessly passed over, had been in direct contact with one Infinity Stone as well, and knew about a second one. On Terra.

Now _that _was valuable information indeed.

* * *

><p>Rocket rubbed at his eyes warily. He was suddenly very tired, and he had a pounding headache. Regrettably, he hadn't had anything to drink that day. Maybe he was coming down with something.<p>

A shaking of leaves and branches got his attention. "I am Groot!"

Rocket blinked at his companion. "What?"

"I am Groot!"

Rocket felt his unease grew. "How do you know something's wrong?"

Groot's shaking grew. "I am Groot! I am Groot!"

"Wazzamatter?" Stark said tiredly from his cot.

Rocket reached for his gun. "I think we gotta a problem. Groot says there's something on board."

"Woah, woah, what?" Out of the corner of his eye, Rocket saw Stark snap to attention, putting the gauntlets from his suit on his hands.

Rocket cocked his gun. "Which way, Groot?"

"I am Groot!"

Rocket cocked his gun, his ears picking up the high pitched whine the rotors made when it was charging. He headed in the direction of the barracks, Stark following behind him. Immediately, he noticed Quill's door was open a fraction, which wasn't in itself unusual, but that coupled with Groot's warning made Rocket's ears flatten against his skull.

He paused for a moment, listening, but heard nothing. "Alright, asshole, here I come," he growled.

"Are you talking to Quill or the thing?" Stark whispered.

Rocket leapt forward, kicking the door open. He landed on his feet inside Quill's room, gun pointed towards the bed.

There was a hissing, and a huge, black humanoid thing turned towards him almost faster than he could comprehend. Rocket yelled and pulled the trigger even as he heard the whine of Stark's repulsors behind him. The recoil threw Rocket back a few inches, and the resulting blast made a huge scorch mark on steel bulkhead above Quill's bed. Quill stirred then, but not back to consciousness. The Outrider leapt over his prone form, mouth wide with teeth that were larger than Rocket's whole snout.

"Shiiiiiit!" Rocket scrambled frantically with his gun as the thing charged him.

There was another repulsor whine, and the Outrider was thrown backwards against the wall with a huge thud. Quill was stumbling out of bed, trying to get away from the action. The Outrider recovered quickly, charging them again. Rocket had his gun ready and fired, but the Outrider dodged, leaping over him onto Stark's chest. The Terran let out a grunt of pain as he was pushed down to the floor. The Outrider pushed off his body, sailing into the hallway beyond.

Rocket chased it, also leaping over Stark as well, sparing a glance at the prone human. Stark seemed fine, just dazed, so Rocket continued to move. The thing was really fast, but Rocket felt himself smiling when a door opened in the side of the hall and a green blur shot out. Gamora tumbled with it for a moment, dodging as it slashed at her face. The Outrider took advantage of her distraction, leaping away from her instead of following through. Gamora slashed her sword, and there was a high, shrieking scream as a black arm fell to the floor.

Drax was also out of his room by then, and he threw a knife at the Outrider's retreating back but it darted to the side. The knife clattered harmlessly to the ground.

"Stop it!" Gamora screamed as she clambered to her feet, but it was too late. The thing was too spry, even missing an arm, and the corridors were too narrow to gain on it. Rocket and Drax ran after it but they only made it just in time to see its feet disappearing out through the airlock and into a small cockpit below.

"Don't let it go, don't depressurize!" Drax shouted, trying for the manual controls. He pushed two buttons and when nothing happened, he punched them. "It's sabotaged!" Drax turned to Rocket.

Rocket dropped his gun, sprinting on all fours back up the corridor to the cockpit. It was too late to stop the airlock but he might be able to still shoot it. Gamora and Stark came up behind him a moment later. "We can't let it get away," Gamora panted.

"I know, I know, I know!" Rocket mumbled, claws flying over the controls, trying to pick up the shit that he knew was there, trying to pinpoint exactly where it was. "I just…crap!" he banged a fist on the console. "The stealth, it's too good, I can't find it! I can't find…" Rocket sank into the chair heavily in defeat, his adrenaline quickly leaving him. The three of them stood in stunned silence.

A few minutes later, Drax came into the cockpit with Quill's arm wrapped around his shoulders.

"Are you alright?" Gamora asked as Drax helped lower Quill into another chair.

"It was in my head," growled Quill.

Rocket scrubbed a claw over his face. It had been in his head too. That's what that crawly feeling was he still had, with the headache. He shuddered. "Mine too. It was in my head too," he sighed.

They turned to look at him, and he didn't meet their eyes.

"I was awake, I could have stopped it, I could have…if Groot hadn't-"

"No," Stark's voice cut him off. "It followed me. This is my fault." Rocket looked up in surprise, and saw Stark's still-guantleted hands tighten around his biceps.

"You're both wrong," Gamora said quietly. "It was here for Quill. It was a different Outrider than the one that attacked you."

"She's right. I can still feel it, rooting around in my head. It was looking for me because of the Stone. But now it knows something else."

Everyone turned to look back at Stark. He sighed heavily. "It knows about the stones on Earth."

"It's a safe bet to assume Thanos will soon know everything we do." Rocket dug his claws into his knees angrily. This still felt like his fault. Damn, he missed the days when he was only responsible for himself.

He felt a hand squeeze his shoulder and looked up. Quill had gotten to his feet, and was smiling down at him. "It isn't anyone's fault. We'll just have to fly the ship extra fast back to Terra. We're going to need your help to recalibrate some of the power. Can you do that?"

Rocket's mouth opened slightly, surprised by Quill's compassion. Then he quickly clamped it shut and nodded. "Fine, fine. Not my fault you losers don't know how to deal with complex vehicle mechanics." He winced slightly, regretting the words as soon as he said them. If anyone else noticed he was trying to cover up his feelings of gratitude, no one said anything.

"I know complex vehicle mechanics," Stark said.

"Good," said Rocket, leaping off his chair. "You're with me." Rocket rolled his shoulders, walking past them all. "Let's go see if we can't give this soup can some juice."

* * *

><p>Six hours later, and Rocket and Stark had gotten the Milano at least somewhat faster. Peter knew this, because he went to turn on the faucet and instead of water coming out, it just made a sad "pfft" noise. Peter sighed, leaning against the wall where the intercom was.<p>

"How does increased speed affect the water supply?" he asked tiredly. He took his hand off the button, rubbing his forehead. He still had a massive headache from the Outrider, and had been afraid to try and go back to sleep. It still felt like his thoughts were slipping around in something oily, and it was hard for him to get a mental grasp on anything when he thought beyond the here and now.

There was a minute, before a small burst of static came back over the intercom. "It's probably best you don't know," Rocket's voice came back.

Peter pressed the intercom again. "Rocket, if you break my ship, so help me, I'll-"

"Why the _suck_ would I intentionally break the thing I, myself, am riding in?" Rocket demanded angrily. "If this rustbucket falls outta the sky, I'm dead too, do you think-"

"Quill," Stark's voice cut in over Rocket's though he could still hear Rocket mumbling in the background. "If you need water, you have to get it out of the tanks manually."

"_Thank_ you," Quill growled, before he pushed himself off from the wall.

Peter made it as far as the galley before he decided it was too much effort to climb a ladder down two decks and root around in the bowels of the ship with a tin cup looking for water. He sank heavily onto a stool, and rested his head against the cool metal table.

Something like ten minutes later, he heard footsteps approaching. He grunted a half-hearted greeting as someone sat in the seat across the table from him.

"How are you feeling?" Stark asked.

"Peachy," Quill mumbled.

"Why haven't you gone back to Earth?"

"What?" Peter picked his head up and gave him a questioning look. He mentally stumbled for an answer, because the question was just so unexpected. His mind came up blank.

"I mean, I get that you were abducted, so maybe you couldn't have when you were like, 12 or whatever, but obviously you seem to have pretty good authority these days." Stark leaned back, giving him a look Peter couldn't quite read. "So, why haven't you gone back to Earth?"

"Cuz space is cool?" Quill said, but it was half-hearted and forced.

"You could have been like…a bridge between worlds," Stark pressed. Peter felt his headache increasing. "Imagine the stuff you know that if people on Earth knew-"

"No. They would have put me in some kind of government E.T. space thing, I just know it."

"That's not it," Stark said quietly. Peter shifted under the other man's scrutiny. "It's kinda selfish, with the knowledge you have, sitting out in space and not sharing it."

Quill felt himself getting pissed. "Yup! You're right, it's really selfish, and guess what? I'm okay with that. I'm a selfish guy! You don't know anything about me, Stark, so let me be the first to tell you, I'm a selfish asshole! I'm sure you are too." He pointed to the red and gold guantlets that Stark was _still_ wearing, despite the danger having passed. "How many other people on Earth have that technology? I bet you're the only one."

Stark blinked in surprise, before answering. "Well, the government did, but then they tried to kill a third of the population, go figure." He shrugged. "So yup, you're right, I am selfish. Because it's getting harder and harder to trust people back on Earth. Alien invasions certainly aren't helping things." Stark sat back, drumming his fingers on the table in thought. They made a loud _clack clack clack_ sound.

Quill raised an eyebrow. "Sounds rough."

Stark sighed. "You know, I actually envy you. Getting away from Earth. Politics. Responsibility."

Quill tensed at the comment. He'd been plenty responsible when it came down to it. But then he realized Stark wasn't talking about him. "No one asked you to do that stuff, I'm sure man."

Stark looked back at him. "Who else would?" He stood up to leave. "But maybe that's something you and I have in common." He gave a small smirk. "Feel better."

* * *

><p>Hours before they reached Terra. Gamora found herself growing increasingly restless the closer they got. She could also see her emotions mirrored in Quill's actions.. She knew that for him, Terra meant seeing his old life, possibly people he left behind. How things were different, how they were the same.<p>

He was almost better off not knowing.

Her own anxieties were for an entirely different reason. She doubted Thanos had beat them there, but what if he had? What if somehow his generals were there already, waiting for them? Gamora had been a daughter of Thanos, but never a general. Not even close. She hoped Stark's friends really were up to the task. If not, they would all die, and Terra would be destroyed in the wake of their failure.

She leaned heavily against Quill's music player. It was playing a song she enjoyed, a female and male duet, with percussion, some bells, and even some stringed instruments of some kind. She let her finger trace idily around the knobs, lost in thought. Music was something she'd taken for granted, before Thanos. After, there never was music. Music was a privilege. Quill didn't know how lucky he was.

She felt the deck structure move beneath her feet long before the person appeared behind her. She did not turn around.

"I have to say, Quill has some classics. But I bet he would have liked grunge, too. Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins…"

"Quill has never indicated a propensity for destroying vegetables," Gamora mumbled, still running her fingers along the seams of the music player.

"Eh, nevermind."

She turned her towards him, waiting for him to say what he had really come to ask her. His eyes lingered on her face, below her eyes.

"Can I ask you…about those?" He nodded towards the lines on her cheek.

She blinked, surprised. She had thought he'd come to ask her more about Thanos. Her hand unconsciously shot up to trace the line of cybernetics that ran parallel to her cheek bone. "You know what these are?"

"Cybernetics," he said easily. He slipped his arms out of the gauntlets he was still wearing, placing them gently on the bench next to the music player. "Rocket, uh, briefly mentioned them."

She raised an eyebrow. "Did he only mention mine?"

"Uh…yes." She tilted her head, not surprised Rocket would talk about other people's tech with strangers, but not his own. Of course, hers had a terrible purpose. Rocket's was personal.

"Go on, then. What do you want to know?" she repeated. "They make me stronger, faster, and put me at the peak of physical condition. They've been part of me since I was a girl. They weren't put in me by choice." She found herself uttering the last words with a low growl.

To her surprise, Stark smirked. "Believe me, I know a little something about that." He rubbed at his chest. "I had a battery in my chest for the better part of five years."

She felt her brow furrow. "Why?" She didn't know Terrans participated in that sort of thing.

He crossed his arms high on his chest. "Powered a battery that kept shrapnel out of my heart. The shrapnel's gone, but sometimes, it still hurts. I still feel it," he finished quietly. "And I was awake for the surgery. So…I know a little about that," he repeated.

She regarded him coolly, a begrudging sort of respect coming to encompass her opinion of him. But instead of telling him how her own cybernetics ran the length of her nervous system, she smiled slightly. "I see. I am glad you are better." She nodded towards his chest.

"Heh. Physically, anyway. So…are cybernetics, uh, common in the galaxy?"

She raised an eyebrow again, amused by Stark feeling like he had to trade information with her. "No," she started. "But warriors, soldiers for hire, often undergo surgery to make them better predators. But the price they pay is often high." She slowly moved her arm out in front of her body, inspecting her fingers. "It is easy to lose the thing that makes you a person. Easy to get lost in the thrill of the hunt."

"But you're not like that," Stark persisted.

She looked at him, dropping her arm back to her side. "No. Because I knew the hunt is actually someone else's, and I was just a tool." She smiled. "But these days, I fight my own battles."

He smiled back.

Their moment was interrupted by the sound of Quill's voice over the ship-wide PA. "Guys, come up to the bridge if you wanna see something _really_ cool."

Stark followed her up, and she distantly heard Drax coming up from somewhere behind him. Rocket and Quill were both seated on the forward-most chairs. She was about to say something snarky to Quill just out of habit when she caught the raw, emotional excitement on his face as he turned to face them. "Check it out!" He moved aside so they could see.

Terra, fresh and blue and pure rose ahead of them. Suspended in space, white, fluffy clouds spun around its surface like huge, slow-moving swirls against a bright, glowing, aquamarine backdrop.

It was beautiful.

She heard Stark audibly gasp, and Quill sucked in a breath that she thought might have been an attempt to restrain his emotion. She rested her hand on its shoulder.

"So," Quill said, voice tight with longing but also happiness. "Think it's worth saving?"


	3. Chapter 3

In front of them, the console began to beep. Tony instantly feared it had something to do with his and Rocket's hasty re-purposing of the water systems, but that wasn't the case, apparently.

"We're being hailed," Drax announced.

"What? By who?" Tony shoved himself in between Gamora and Quill for a better look through the window.

A small screen on the console flickered, and a human woman with long, green bright hair and some of the weirdest shades Tony had ever seen, appeared on the screen. Altogether, it looked like something out of Max Headroom.

"This is Abigail Brand, of the Sentient World Observation and Response Department," she intoned in plain English. "You are entering Earth protected space. State your name and business, or risk destruction."

They all turned to look at Tony.

"Holy hell," he breathed. He had no idea this organization existed. Now that he was looking for it, he dimly caught the outline of something - something that _wasn't_ the International Space Station - against the stars.

He turned his attention back to the woman on the screen. "Hi, yeah, this is Tony Stark, you may refer to me as Iron Man and _wow_, I am _pissed_ and also a little impressed that the existence of your space station and World Observity-thing was kept a secret from me this long."

A flicker of doubt crossed her eyes, but Tony had to hand it to her, this Brand lady had a pretty good poker face. "Can you prove your identity?"

He rolled his eyes. "Want me to do it for the Vine? Call up the Air Force, they'll vouch for me. OOH, or the President, we saved his life last year. Did you know that? Do you get CNN up here?"

Tony took great satisfaction in seeing Brand's jaw clench, even though he'd only known the woman for two minutes. "Stop your craft at The Peak, Stark. We're reading five other life forms that you'll have to identify as well. I don't know how you got into space without my notice, but I sure as Hell intend to find out." The screen promptly went dark, with a red "Transmission ended" notice.

"She seems nice," Rocket said blandly.

Tony waved towards the space station, which was now coming into clearer focus as a long, sharp-looking pyramid. "Just go. Every time another organization with an acronym pops up, I intend to figure out what the hell it's doing."

_Sentient World Observation and Response Department, Tony reflected. That makes..._

_S.W.O.R.D._

Damn, if that wasn't bad news in the making, Tony didn't know what was.

* * *

><p>When their ship docked, the five of them plus Tony stood in the air lock of the Milano. Tony was fully armored, carrying his helmet under his arm. Rocket glanced over him.<p>

"Expecting a fight?"

Tony rolled his shoulders. "Doesn't hurt to be prepared. Especially when the last government organization I dealt with was full of guys who wanted to Nuke Manhattan, and that was _before_ we found out they were all Nazis."

They all looked at him sideways. It was clear only Peter actually knew what a Nazi was, but the other Guardians could tell by his tone of voice that they were bad news. Tony saw them all make sure their weapons were loose in their sheaths.

The doors slid open with a hiss, and they suddenly found themselves standing in front of ten armed, armored, masked and uniformed men and women. The business ends of their guns were pointed in their directions. "Don't move," one of them said, voice distorted by a mask that looked part motorcycle helmet, part jet pilot. Tony stuck his hand to one side, stopping the Guardians from drawing their weapons.

"Woah, hey now…we come in peace," Tony said.

"Then drop your weapons," the man in the mask replied.

"That won't be necessary," Abigail Brand's voice came from behind the soldiers. They stepped to the side so she could come through. She pushed through them anyway, her stride oozing confidence. She stood with her hands on her hips, glancing over them from behind transparent green sunglasses. "Our readings say you have six life forms on board. Where is the other one?" Her gaze lingered on Rocket, who bared his teeth slightly.

Tony blinked. "It's a, uh, plant."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Fine. Come with me." She turned abruptly, not waiting to see if they'd follow or not. Tony glanced back at the others. The Guardians all had hardened looks on their faces, but Gamora nodded to Tony that they should follow. They started walking, the armed guards flanking them with their guns held tight against their chests.

"I don't like this," growled Rocket, hefting a gun that was bigger than him.

"Holy shit, the weasel talks!" one of the soldiers exclaimed in surprise.

Rocket whirled, ears flat against his head. "WHAT'D YOU CALL ME?"

There was a chorus of clicks as all the guns became aimed on Rocket. While Rocket himself looked like a snarling ball of rage, the rest of the Guardians, Tony noticed, looked downright _murderous_.

Tony moved himself in front of the jerk who'd called Rocket a weasel, effectively blocking the man's line of sight. Tony wrapped his fingers around the barrel of the guy's gun, gently lowering it towards the ground. "Hey, so…why don't you just apologize, huh?" Tony narrowed his eyes giving him his best Iron Man glare.

He could almost hear the man swallowing behind his mask. Well, good to know Iron Man still had some clout despite being in space.

"S-sorry," the man mumbled. Rocket just curled his lip up and rolled his shoulders in answer.

Throughout the whole exchange, Brand just watched everything coolly. Argument over,she turned and continued to lead the way down the corridors until they came across a large room with a big table in the middle. The room had one, massive window looking out over the Earth. It struck Tony as completely gorgeous.

"Please, sit down," Brand instructed. Their convoy stayed outside the doors of the briefing room, making Brand and one assistant the only S.W.O.R.D. agents left in the room. Gamora, Rocket and Drax all made a show of deliberately placing their weapons on the table in front of them within easy reach while Quill poked around what looked to be a snack table. Unsurprisingly, he wasted no time in pouring himself coffee and grabbing a bag of Doritos.

"Ohhhhh, I can't believe they still make these!"

"I'm trying to get them to stop bringing them up, actually," Brand said. "Too many carbs."

"Whazza carb?" Quill asked, his face stuffed full of Doritos as he took a seat next to Gamora.

Tony didn't miss the way Brand's eyes narrowed slightly. Doubtless, she'd only taken a second to come to the same observations as he had upon initially meeting the other man. He was American, he seemed to be missing some important culture stuff, he was childish, and he was also carrying a wide array of alien tech.

Brand turned towards Tony, who had remained standing in his suit after placing his helmet on the table. It effectively made him the tallest person in the room, including Brand, the only other one standing. "Mr. Stark, would you like a seat?"

"Nah, I'll break the chair. This thing weighs like, 300 pounds you know. Still lighter than War Machine though! Sorry, Iron Patriot. Or are we back to War Machine? I haven't gotten a chance to talk to my friend since I've been back from space, you may know him as the guy who saved the President last year, or did I already mention that-"

"Mr. Stark," Brand interrupted, irritation clear in her voice. "Care to tell me how you ended up on an alien craft in deep space?"

"Nope!" Tony smiled.

"I would like to stress this is a matter of global security."

"Yeah, it is," Tony growled. "Like how a giant, government run Death Star ended up brushing elbows with our atmosphere without _anyone_ knowing about it. _That_ seems like a security risk to me, especially in the wake of finding out about a third of the American government was being run by Skinheads."

"There's no Hydra here," Brand told him simply.

"You can't know that," Tony hissed. "You could be Hydra. I mean, hell, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. was."

Brand sighed, taking her glasses off. "Mr. Stark, I can't prove to you I'm not Hydra. But I can tell you this: when this space station went into orbit, Alexander Pierce had no clue of its existence. When S.W.O.R.D. was founded, Nick Fury wasn't even in trenchcoats yet. And when your father was founding S.H.I.E.L.D, my mother was scared to death that she was giving birth to a half-alien baby she didn't know anything about. So I can tell you, I've had much bigger things to worry about in my life than some half-cocked Nazi relics trying to destroy the American government. No one here is Hydra. I've personally vetted every one. I may not be able to convince you completely, which is fine." She leaned forward on the table, staring at him right in the eyes. "But let me tell you, I know there are way bigger problems in this universe than Hydra. So I. Don't. Care."

Tony crossed his arms over her chest. He still didn't trust her, but he was beginning to see now that at least she wasn't totally stupid. Convicted, maybe, and that was its own kind of dangerous.

Luckily, Gamora took that moment to step in.

"Are you aware of Thanos?"

Brand's attention turned to her. Tony could practically see the woman measuring the implications of the question. "By reputation," she said slowly. "I was hoping his particular brand of alien might overlook this part of the universe." She glanced around to each of them. "But I suppose I was wrong to hope."

"There might be some stuff on Earth he's interested in," Quill spoke up.

Brand turned her gaze towards him, then back to Stark. "What kind of…stuff? Stuff like the Tesseract?"

Tony wasn't surprised she knew what the Tesseract was. "Sure," he allowed. "I was traveling to Asgard when one of his spies interrupted the flight. That's how the Guardians found me." He ignored the pleased expression on Quill's face.

"Another assassin found him later, on our ship. Thanos or his generals may be on their way already," Gamora finished. She glanced at Tony, and he nodded slightly to her. No sense in pointing out to Brand that the Guardians had had their own firsthand experience with a stone and the assassin had been there for that.

Brand leaned back in her chair, considering. "I can tell you right now, the Peak does not have the firepower to stop someone like Thanos."

"You leave that to us," Tony said, sounding more confident than he felt at the moment. "In the meantime, I'm going to need like, 12 ear piece comms, a sat. phone, a dozen donuts, and for you to keep your eyes on the skies."

Brand turned to her assistant and said, "go." Her assistant scurried off.

Tony clapped his hands together with a loud ringing of metal. "Great. I love a woman who can get stuff done. Now, where are those donuts?"

* * *

><p>"Oh my God, oh my GOD, where the hell have you been, Jane and Thor have been bouncing back and forth between here and Asgard trying to figure out what <em>happened<em> to you, and Thor is a major wreck, he looks like he's been going to cry, except he doesn't cry because of some weird patriarchal macho thing I think, but at least I've never seen him cry-"

"Darcy-"

"But where are you now?" Tony saw Darcy's eyes try and see behind him on the screen. "Holy shit, is that space? Are you in space right now?"

"Let me talk to-"

"Oh my god, you _are!_ What's it like? I mean, not that I can't ask Thor or Jane, but they don't talk to me about that stuff, except for Jane, but then she gets all nerdy and astrophysicist about it, you know what I mean? Course you do, you have like four doctorates, don't you? I did some studying, err, if you can call visiting your wiki page like 40 times studying I guess. I even made some edits myself, but I have to say, that stuff about your diet I _totally_ made up-"

"I do eat gluten-free waffles, actually."

A huge grin split the intern's face. "I _knew_ it! You L.A. types, you're all the same, but still it's nice to be validated-"

"Darcy, who are you talking to?" Jane's voice sounded from off-screen.

"Oh thank god," Tony moaned as Jane physically pushed Darcy out of view. "Your intern talks more than me. Which is a huge accomplishment, I have to say." He heard a background squeal of delight as Jane's eyes widened.

"Stark, are you alright? What happened? Where are you?"

"I'm fine, you know, traveled space, made some new friends. Not chitauri friends, like Thor's obnoxious brother, but actual helpful friends. And uh…" he glanced at Brand. "We need to debrief. In person."

Jane nodded. "Alright. Thor's on Asgard right now, but I'll get in touch with him. He can be here in a few hours."

"Make sure you both are in Manhattan by then. I have a few more calls to make."

"Stark?" Jane asked. "I'm glad you're alright." She gave him a small smile.

He grinned back. "Don't count your blessings yet, we still got a lot of work to do."

The second person he called wasn't so nice.

"You shouldn't have this number," a steely voice sounded over the phone.

"Welp, surprise, I do. How did you _not _think dumping all your secrets on the Internet would allow me anything else but finding a direct line to you?"

Silence.

"Anyway," he continued, "I'm getting the band back together. I need you and your patriotic pals."

"Not an option." The finality of the tone mirrored Nick Fury's, and he suppressed a small shudder.

"Where are you, anyway?" He asked.

"Siberia. Is this important? I'm very busy."

"Look. A few days ago, I was pulled out of an inter-dimensional wormhole, met up with some aliens and stuff, found out we share a lot of commonalities, and also discovered the thing that pulled me out of the wormhole in the first place is working for a guy that's of _Tesseract-"_ he stressed the word so she'd know he wasn't dicking around. "-level importance. So when I say I need your help, _I need your help._"

He could almost hear her thinking over the other end of the line. "It's…not that easy." And finally, he heard some worry start to bleed through in her voice.

"Where's the geezer? I need you both. And the wing guy couldn't hurt, I like him. Also Legolas."

Her voice was quieter now. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know, haven't you been paling around together?" Tony could feel himself starting to get anxious. Goddamn, he _hated_ this super spy thing and not knowing where everyone was.

"We've been separated," she snapped. "We have our own missions, and we've been separated for days. I need time."

"I need you," he said quietly.

A beat of silence, then, "We'll be there as soon as we can."

"That's all I can ask."

Then the line went dead.

"Who was that?" Quill asked coming into the room. "Girlfriend? Sounds kinda frigid."

Tony huffed. "She's not my…shit, my girlfriend!"

Quill laughed as Tony rapidly dialed Pepper's number. "You gonna tell her you called another girl before her?"

"You're not the only one with super assassin friends, Quill. I happen to-PEPPER!" Tony felt a huge smile spread across his face at the sight of his (apparently very worried) partner.

That worry abruptly turned to smoldering fury. "I can't _believe_ I had to hear you were alive from Jane Foster before you called me!"

"Man, how many girls did you call?" Quill said.

Tony threw a half-eaten donut at him before turning back to Pepper. "Pepper, sweetie, I had to make some national security type calls before I could call you, I _swear_. I'm okay. Are you okay?"

"No I'm _not_ okay, first I hear you vanish into space and you might be dead, and you're missing for almost a week, and I have to make up lies to people and oh my god Tony, I was so worried!" Tony could see tears forming at the corners of her eyes and immediately began to feel guilt compressing his chest. He could only imagine the multiple repeats of him being missing, and he hadn't even had a chance to leave her a message this time.

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry. Believe me, I wish this type of thing wouldn't keep happening either."

She closed her eyes and exhaled a long breath, as Tony watched her gathering herself. When she opened again, there was just concern there. "Are you okay though? Really?"

He gave her one of those small, quiet smiles he reserved only for her. "Yeah, really. But you can't stay in New York. Something big is coming. You have to leave, right now."

She glanced at something to her right before leaning closer to the screen and lowering her voice, "Tony, I can't leave all these people here. If we're in danger, everyone has to know. I'm not going to be the rich douchebag who runs at the first sign of trouble and leaves all their employees to the grace of God."

"Pepper, I love you so much, but sometimes you have to be that rich douchebag and _get the hell away from there._" Tony rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

Her steely boardroom gaze came crashing down across her features. "Absolutely not. Tell me what I can do."

"Fire them all so they leave."

"Tony, I'm not firing two thousand people," she said with exasperation. "We'll work on preparing a backup communication grid with power from the arc reactor. If something this big is coming, people are still going to need to talk to each other."

"Yes! Disaster preparedness. Do that! But Pepper, stay safe, okay? Please."

"You too, Tony. Please."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Honey Bunches. Now, we both have work to do, wouldn't you say?"

She smirked. "See you on the other side." Then she ended the call.

Tony felt his heart flutter in appreciation (and more than a little worry). He knew he could count on Pepper.

"Cool girl you got there," Quill said.

Tony narrowed his eyes slightly. "Don't talk about her like she's a car. And you can tell her that in person when you see her."

Quill had the decency to give him a somewhat sheepish look, before Brand came into the room. "Gentlemen, we have a situation. If you'd come with me."

They gave each other a worried look, and followed Brand to what Tony took to be some kind of bridge or control room. She nodded to one of the techs on a computer. "Put it up, Rodriguez."

The main screen at the center of the room became black with grid lines drawn across it in white. It flickered every two seconds, and Tony realized he was looking at some sort of deep space radar, not unlike a weather satellite. As the screen flickered and the time code changed, he also realized something huge and black was covering up the stars in the background of the picture. And it was moving. The movement was minute, but even at that distance just a tick of movement showed impressive speed.

Rocket, Gamora and Drax were already standing there. "At current velocity, we estimate it will reach Earth in about six hours. What are we looking at, Gamora?" Brand said quietly.

"It's a warship from Thanos' fleet," Gamora answered slowly. "The kind typically commanded by one of his Generals."

"Just one?" Tony asked.

Gamora turned to look at him, fear apparent in her eyes. "You'd best pray it's just one."

* * *

><p><em>AN: Sorry this chapter was so chatty. Action's coming, I've promised. Thanks for all the great reviews, but nowhere did I ever say all of the Avengers were going to be in this. You may want to stay tuned anyway. ;) Huge thanks to VLeRoux for the beta. _


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